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RF Project Noah

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
This thread is inspired by a smartphone application I use called 'Project Noah'. The idea is to post photos of wildlife spotting taken by RF members, and together to identify them and get an impression of the wild life of different regions around the world.

In the application there is also division of categories (for example birds, mammals, reptiles) and also missions (for example snakes of the US). I thought that maybe we can try to run something similar, and perhaps one day we can create separate threads for separate categories, or even go on our own missions.
I'll start with some recent and previous spottings of mine. Some taken during work, others while enjoying the Israeli outdoors. I hope other members can participate with their spotting.
We'll set some simple ground rules to get something out of it. The photos we share had to taken by us, we have to provide the common and scientific names in English, and if we don't know that's cool, the idea is that through our shared experience and knowledge perhaps we can recognize and label our spotting together. And no plants in this thread. You can also include a couple of details about your spotting which you think are relevant.


Common name: Crowned Dwarf Racer

Scientific name: Eirenis coronella

Details: Non poisonous, pleasant tempered.

CrownedDwarfRacer.jpg






Common name: Fat-tailed scorpion.

Scientific name: Androctonus crassicauda

Details: Highly venomous, perhaps the most venomous in the world. Found in the Middle East and Africa. Spotted this one while excavating at Arsuf, an ancient crusaders fortress on the Israeli coastal line.

Androctonuscrassicauda.jpg






Common name: Cabbage butterfly, caterpillars

Scientific name: Pieris brassicae

Details: Can cause extensive damage to cabbages.

ae6fc41e-5ab0-4f95-8163-3060bb07d64d_zpse068b178.jpg





Common name: Harvestman

Scientific name: Phalangium savignyi

Details: Although they belong to the Arachnida class they are not spiders. They are able to detach their legs when are preyed upon, and the legs can still twitch for long moments.

Harvestman-Phalangiumsavignyi_zpsea3f522c.jpg




Common name: Nubian ibex

Scientific name: Capra nubiana

NubianIbex.jpg





Common name: Common cranes

Scientific name: Grus grus

Details: A winter visitor and passage migrant. Migrates in autumn, and in spring. Thousands winter in Israel between November and March. The ones in the photos where photographed in the Hula valley in northern Israel.

Cranes.jpg





Cranes2.jpg
 
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Quintessence

Consults with Trees
Staff member
Premium Member
Aw, no plants? *Quint the botanist sniffles sadly* And this is an especially fun time for plants too... the spring ephemerals are coming up. The only time of year to see them is now, and they're very beautiful.

In my walk in the woods yesterday I spotted a number of birds. Most of them I knew, and they're common here in the Midwestern US. Here are the Winged Ones I saw (and my camera is nowhere near good enough to get any photos of moving wildlife, so instead of hotlinking to images that aren't mine, I'm linking to a great bird website):

American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Crafty Bird
Quint Observations: I love watching these guys roost during the dark half of the year. The sheer numbers of them that gather is a sight to behold. Just don't walk under them. You'll regret it.

Red-bellied Woodpecker (Melanerpes carolinus)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Red Belly
Quint Observations: Easier to recognize by their heads than their bellies, they can make quite a bit of noise in the woods. They're louder than the other woodpecker we have a lot of around here.

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Downy
Quint Observations: Something about these guys is just adorable. They're easy to tempt to your backyard feeders with suet cakes. There is another species that looks very similar to this one, but Mr. Downy is smaller.

Black-Capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Chicadeedeedee
Quint Observations: This bird is the definition of adorable. Just look at it. It's adorable! They're agile fliers, have a wide variety of songs, and are curious about everything.

Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Firebird
Quint Observations: The males are singing up a storm this time of year. They're hard to miss since the trees have not leafed out yet. Did you know that they make an almost hissing-like sound when they get angry?

Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii)
Cornell Ornithology's Page about Mr. Hawk
Quint Observation: I am not 100% sure this is the bird of prey I saw, but the size is right, the habitat is right, the coloration is probably right. There were at least a couple of them hanging around, maybe a breeding pair?
 

dust1n

Zindīq
I love crows.... if one ever comes around my house, I'm going to feed it immediately, and talk to it, and open my window for him so he can sit on the ledge, and he can repeat things I say as I write my novels.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Some of my hommies:

Lynx rufus
Commonly called Bobcat.
Affectionally refered to as "Bob".
bobcat_4.jpg





Canis latrans
aka: Coyote
coyote11.jpg
 
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Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Another Nubian ibex, this one was checking me out while I was trekking the Negev desert.

Common name: Nubian ibex

Scientific name: Capra nubiana


IbexatNegevdesert.jpg
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Common name: Bridled mabuya

Scientific name: Trachylepis vittata


Details: A species of skinks found in the Middle East and North Africa, lives in open sandy or stony soil with little grass or bushy vegetation. It is usually found near water.

Bridledmabuya2_zpsafbf0feb.jpg







Common name: Spur-tighed tortoise

Scientific name: Testudo graeca terrestris

Turtle2_zpsee5961ed.jpg







Common name: Middle East blind mole rat

Scientific name: Spalax ehrenbergi


Details: A fiercely territorial and solitary type of rodent. The average area of the subterranean tunnel system that the mole rat digs is about 340 m2.

Molerat2_zpsb3a05e3e.jpg
 

Alex_G

Enlightner of the Senses
Common name: Red Kite

Scientific name: Milvus milvus

My favourite bird, with the characteristic forked tail that makes it easily identifiable and distinguished from the more common Buzzard.
Almost became extinct here, (declining to 2 pairs in the 1930s) but has since recovered quite well. There is a Red Kite sanctuary near where I live, and come feeding time, the sky fills with Kites, which is pretty great.


kite-628.jpg


RGNhttg.png


orS25Pr.png

RGNhttg
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Great photos all, but just so I am sure we all understood the OP. The idea is for us to post our spotting, as in photos we took of wild life. If all the photos in this thread were taken by members, then you're quite a talented bunch :D if not, please keep in mind the OP ;)

The idea of the project is to share our spottings together and identify them, and perhaps learn a few things about the wild life we photographed.
 

Quagmire

Imaginary talking monkey
Staff member
Premium Member
Great photos all, but just so I am sure we all understood the OP. The idea is for us to post our spotting, as in photos we took of wild life. If all the photos in this thread were taken by members, then you're quite a talented bunch :D if not, please keep in mind the OP ;)

The idea of the project is to share our spottings together and identify them, and perhaps learn a few things about the wild life we photographed.

OOOps. :p
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Hmmm...I could probably photograph some local stuff. My life expectancy might drop a little, since even the frigging platypus is poisonous.
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Common name: Western honey bee

Scientific name: Apis mellifera


Details: The native bee to the region (A. mellifera syriaca) is now completely extinct. The native 'Syrian bee' was too aggressive for domestication so European honey bees were imported in the 80's and were domesticated. The new imported bees infected the Syrian bee with diseases and parasites which were unknown to them to the point of complete extinction.

3da7d573-1712-41b8-800e-d06a3885e8c6_zps9dbc88a7.jpg
 
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lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
Common Name : Red Kangaroo (joey)

Scientific Name : Macropus rufus

Details : Hard to believe this little guy will be able to jump 9 metres in a single bound when fully grown. His mother was roadkill, which is very common where I am working at the moment (outback Queensland) as there are so many roos, and they have no fear of cars. Approximately 1.5 million of these guys are killed each year for commercial use, as they are over-populated, but I'm glad this fella got saved anyway.


 
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Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Here are a couple of more spottings I made in Israel and in New Zealand.

Common name: Bottlenose dolphins

Scientific name: Tursiops truncatus ponticus


Details: I photographed these dolphins in the Red Sea, in southern Israel. While the red sea has a local species of bottlenose dolphins (Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin), these dolphins were brought to the Red Sea from the Black Sea. The second photo was taken by my friend who was an underwater photographer at the time.

Dolphinreef3_zpsb6ad93d2.jpg





Dolphin-1.jpg






Common name: New Zealand fur seal

Scientific name: Arctocephalus foresteri


SealinNewZealand_zps41f81b7d.jpg
 

lewisnotmiller

Grand Hat
Staff member
Premium Member
That's a very cute joey lewis :) is he on the way to the vet in the photo?

Actually, he was fine, just his mother that wasn't. One of the locals was going to take him home and look after him until he was old enough to fend for himself. In the photo he's sitting in her handbag, which was the closest we could manage to his mother's pouch on zero notice...! Looking after injured or orphaned native animals is pretty regular occurence in places like this...

I'm kinda in the middle of nowhere, doing systems work for a copper mine. And in Australia, the middle of nowhere is a long way from somewhere...lol

When did you go to NZ? I lived there for a while.

(BTW, you take some nice photos!)
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Actually, he was fine, just his mother that wasn't. One of the locals was going to take him home and look after him until he was old enough to fend for himself. In the photo he's sitting in her handbag, which was the closest we could manage to his mother's pouch on zero notice...! Looking after injured or orphaned native animals is pretty regular occurence in places like this...
I see. :yes:

I'm kinda in the middle of nowhere, doing systems work for a copper mine. And in Australia, the middle of nowhere is a long way from somewhere...lol
I hear ya. There's some advantages in this kind of work habit, but I know not everyone is cut out for it.
When did you go to NZ? I lived there for a while.
I was in NZ in 2004. I found it to be a beautiful country, definitely worth flying all the way from Israel.

(BTW, you take some nice photos!)
Thanks! When I get the chance I try to take photos during my routine work. Some of the other photos are while traveling, or hiking. Israel is not a big country, but we have some interesting wildlife, and geographical diversity.
 

Caladan

Agnostic Pantheist
Today I was overconfident that I would avoid snakes at work because we are further into winter season and snakes brumate (as opposed to hibernate) at this time. However I encountered a beautiful and fairly large Palestinian viper (or common viper as we call them here).

Common name: Palestinian viper

Scientific name: Vipera Palaestinae

Details: A venomous and dangerous snake. It is in fact the venomous of all the snakes in Israel. The viper is characterized by a triangular shaped head and 'zigzag' patterns on its tail. Can reach 1.35 M, most individuals reach 1.20 M.


Palestinianviperfocus_zps60291808.jpg
 
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Avi1001

reform Jew humanist liberal feminist entrepreneur
These are beautiful pics, Cal, thanks for posting ! I have never seen animals like this.
 
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